Crystalline bars or, in general, monocrystals which may be of considerable importance in the semiconductor arts, can be grown by allowing the crystal to develop between a seed crystal or a bar of the previously developed crystal and a melt of the material from which the crystal is to be grown, the melt being supplied by zone-melting processes or from a crucible in which the molten material is maintained, e.g. based upon the Czochalski crucible melt process described in German patent document DE-OS No. 16 44 020. It is known that an intimate two-dimensional mixing, i.e. a mixing substantially in the plane of the interface between the bar and the melt has the advantage of improving the crystal quality and of providing a substantially uniform distribution of resistance over the entire cross section of the crystal body. It appears that this is a result of a more homogeneous distribution across the cross section of the body of the doping materials which may be present in the melt.
Customarily this intimate two-dimensional mixing is effected by imparting a rather complex relative movement to the source member, e.g. the crucible or the bar from which the material is melted, and the monocrystalline bar which is produced, this complex movement being a result, for example, of a hypercycloidal path of the seed crystal or the bar or a similar movement of the crucible.
The axes of the bar and the crucible, although parallel, can then be offset from one another and both the crucible and the bar can be rotated about the respective axes so that the relative movement corresponds to the hypercycloidal path.
When such systems in which mechanical drives are coupled through solid members with the bar and the crucible, it is not possible to avoid external influences upon the crystal-growing region so that, for example, vibrations or shocks can be transmitted to the crucible or to the growing crystal.